'Walking Dead' Season 5: Do NOT Miss the First Episode

Walking Dead producer Jolly Dale used to be the show's production supervisor, which she describes as being a very "nuts and bolts job." She crunched numbers, kept track of the budget, hired crew, and procured equipment -- so basically, Dale knows a thing or two about what it takes to pull off a major episode.

That's why I'm kind of excited by her interview on the Walking Dead blog. Like the rest of the cast and crew, Dale seems quite skilled in the art of the tease, but her revelation about what we can expect in the season 5 premiere goes well beyond hinting and straight into promise territory. While creator Robert Kirkman has stated the premiere will “hit the ground running,” Dale gets specific about why this episode will be noteworthy.

When asked what the biggest challenge in filming season 5 has been, Dale responded:

Well, you will eventually see that the premiere episode is by far the biggest episode that we’ve ever done. So, getting it all together to make it come off as good as we want has been a huge task, but it’s going to be amazing.

Dude, that is quite the claim. By FAR the biggest episode? And I'm guessing that given her background, she's talking about scope as opposed to one super-shocking death or whatever. I think we can assume the premiere will be absolutely jam-packed with action, whether that's a Terminus origin story or Rick's group fighting back or some combination or something else entirely.

Her comments seem in line with what's being shared by The Spoiling Dead, who reports that screams and gunshots have been observed at the filming location lately:

Today's filming at the old hospital in Newnan. Filming outdoor scenes today. Gunshots could be heard earlier.

Here's another hint from Dale:

There’s a lot of stuff I’m not allowed to talk about, but readers of the comic book will have a pretty good idea of which direction we’re going in.

So maybe a storyline that echoes The Hunters from the comics, which could include some backstory in how Terminus came to be (if so, get ready for the possibility of learning that they ate their own children to survive) or focus on Rick's incredibly violent retaliation against the group. Or she might be referring to the introduction of Father Gabriel.

At any rate, Dale says we can definitely expect new faces in season 5:

The way I see it is, we’ve killed a lot of beloved characters on the show, but that just opens it up for new story lines to come along. So don’t be too sad about all the people who died in Season 4 because there will be way more characters to come.

Since most of the people who died in season 4 were Woodbury redshirts (except Hershel) (RIP zombie Santa), could this be a cagey reference to the rumor that we're going to lose a major original character in the first part of season 5? Perhaps even in the very first episode? HMMMMM.

Clear your dance card for October, Walking Dead fans! This definitely sounds like a premiere that needs to be watched on the day it airs.

Are you looking forward to season 5 of The Walking Dead? Any predictions for the first episode?